The body of the Gatekeeper burned, leaving behind a dark brown sphere, smooth and dense, roughly the size of a fist, sitting in the ruin of the Gatekeeper’s chest cavity.
Hide crouched and picked it up.
It was heavier than it looked. Warm in his palm. He thought about storing it in his inventory without looking at it further and the ball vanished without a trace.
Then, from where the beast had died fus of green energy rose and swirled around Hide’s body for a few seconds, confused, and then seeped in.
It was the accumulated life mana of an E-Rank beast that had existed at the center of this loop for long enough. Life mana was like experience that the beasts and humans accumulated in order to grow stronger.
After a beast or a human is killed, the life mana would escape their body and enter the victors body. The accumulation of life mana helped one elevate their class rank.
Example, everyone starts as an F Rank at the beginning, with a Class potential that showed how high the class rank can reach. Every bit of life mana absorbed increased the Class Evolution percentage from 0 to 100 percent, resulting in the increase of class rank.
Hide said Class state, and the ring in his hand projected his stats. But looking at it, a frown grew on his face.
Na - Hide Volter
Class - ∞
Current Class Rank - F
Class Evolution Percentage - 0%
Class Potential - S
Talent - None
Talent Rank - 0 star
--
’What the hell? Nothing changed? The class evolution percentage is still 0, so where did the life mana go?’
Responding to his thoughts, a system window appeared.
[The life mana has been converted to Evolution Points that can be used to buy anything from Shop]
He sighed and then looked back.
Toma was staring at him, with his mouth hanging open like a drawer.
He had been staring since the flas appeared on Hide’s hands, and through everything that followed. Without saying anything because there had been nothing to say. He’d just stood there with the broken half-sword hanging from one hand.
When he noticed Hide looking back at him, he straightened and cleared his throat. "Your class," he said finally.
"So, like what is up with your class? You grew scales. "His voice was slow now. "That’s a Warrior-class talent. Physical enhancent, particularly." He paused. "And then you used flas. That’s a Mage-class talent."
Then he went silent and almost yelled, freaked out. "At the sa ti. How?"
Hide said nothing and simply picked up his cloths, went behind the bushes and changed into them.
"That’s not possible," Toma pressed on. "Classes don’t work that way. You have one class and your talents co from within that class’s frawork. A Warrior cannot generate elental flas. A Mage cannot grow scales. "So, what are you?"
Hide looked at him without showing any emotions and scratched the back of his head. "My Class allows an affinity to all other classes, and I can use so talents..." he looked away, thinking what to say. "That I have been in contact with."
The silence that followed lasted several seconds.
Toma opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"That’s—" He stopped. Started again. "Do you understand what that ans? A class with no frawork restriction, and access to any talent type—"
"Mr. Helper." Hide looked directly at him and he snapped back.
Hide maintained the eye contact and said. "What you saw in this gate. Actually... You didn’t see any of it. Do you understand? It would be great if you don’t tell anyone."
Toma gulped hard and nodded, it was a secret that will go to his grave with him.
Then the gate exit opened in front of them.
They ca through into the real world and the cold hit them imdiately — the sharp facility air was completely opposite to the dry heat of the gate interior, the temperature drop so sudden that both of them exhaled visible breath in the first second outside.
The caras scanned and announced. "Zone Two. Both runners exited."
Before the radio finished crackling back, the alarms began.
The full facility alarm went orange and an overhead announcent followed in a flat automated voice:
"Attention. Gate Zone Two has undergone spontaneous rank advancent. Gate Zone Two is now classified as a Two-Star Loop Gate. All non-essential personnel are to evacuate the Zone Two periter imdiately. All non-essential—"
The main floor above was suddenly filled with motion. Exterminators moving away from Zone Two, staff redirecting, the facility’s ergency protocol running with practiced efficiency.
The monitoring team was already on Zone Two’s gate, pulling up the new interior readings, the screens showing the elevated mana density inside.
Toma watched all of it with the quiet expression and said nothing.
Then, over all the movent and the alarm tone and the automated announcent still repeating — the record board above the gate zones updated.
The entire main floor seed to notice it at the sa ti.
The movent didn’t stop exactly. But it slowed as people’s eyes went to the board. Then going still. Soone on the monitoring team said sothing that wasn’t loud enough to hear across the floor but carried enough disbelief in its tone to be understood at a distance.
The board read:
NEW RECORD — 2★ LOOP GATE (Zone Two)
HIDE VOLTER — 5 MIN 48 SEC
Below it, in smaller text, the previous record:
JAS COLLAR — 7 MIN 03 SEC
The silence spread outward from the board across the facility floor in a slow ring until it reached every corner of the main space. Soone dropped sothing tallic and the clatter was very loud in the quiet.
It was a very big thing, no one had been able to break that record for almost a decade. And today the record was broken by an Exterminator with no talent.
A facility manager appeared at his shoulder imdiately. he was a man in his mid-forties with the expression of soone dealing with three simultaneous unusual events and choosing to address them in order of urgency.
"Mr. Volter." Professionally neutral. "We’d like to show you to a rest room while we process the zone advancent and complete the standard post-run evaluation. The dical team will also—"
"Okay," Hide said without listening to him completely.
The manager looked at him for a mont. Then decided not to push it. "This way, please."
He looked at Toma. "Mr. Toma. We’ll need your full incident report in the head office. Right now, if you are okay with it."
Toma straightened. Nodded and looked at Hide for exactly one second. "Of course," he said. "I will make the report now."
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